FHA Executive Director Dale Bartscher and FHA Action Lobbyist and Youth Coordinator Norman Woods traveled the very familiar road to Sioux Falls on Wednesday. Once again they were assisted by Sioux Falls FHA Representative LaVonne Fosness as we held a Sioux Falls area FHA Legislative Review Luncheon. Seventy-Four energetic guests filled the room at the Linwood Wesleyan Church as their lead Pastor Bob McHenry opened the event in prayer.

We were honored to have in attendance these elected officials: Senators Jim Bolin and Jim Stalzer, along with Representatives Steven Haugaard, Leslie Heinemann, Isaac Latterell, Sue Peterson, Marli Wiese and Larry Zikmund.

It was a treat to welcome Owen Shay, Constituent Service Representative for Congresswoman Kristi Noem (SD) to our event. Owen brought us up-to-date with some of the happenings and decisions made in Congresswoman Noem’s office.

A special treat for Dale was the presence of his sister Cheryl. Cheryl, and her husband Ernie, live in Sioux Falls and often attend FHA events but this day was special. Cheryl was celebrating her birthday and Dale surprised her with a birthday cake complete with candles. This only but goes to prove…the FHA is ‘Family’ in more ways that one 🙂

Once again this year two Rapid City area FHA Legislative Review Events were held to give our FHA friends and partners a “choice” as to which one best fit their schedules. The Cedar Canyon Wesleyan Camp was the perfect host location for these two events. Camp Manager Ben Sutton was more than accommodating as he helped us prepare the facility and serve a delicious meal to welcome our 120 total guests.

We were honored to have in attendance on Tuesday evening Rapid City Council Ward One Candidate Becky Drury, Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom, and Representative Taffy Howard. Wednesday’’s luncheon saw several more elected officials in the house including County Commissioner Mark DiSanto, Senator Phil Jensen, and Representatives Lynne DiSanto and ‘Chip’ Campbell.

Each year we are blessed at these two events to have the most splendid assistance of TeenPact Students and their Sponsors. Under the excellent leadership of SD TeenPact State Coordinator Joanne Woods these seven young people helped set-up, served and cleaned-up after the event. Joanne and Pastor Phil Shively, a TeenPact Class Director, shared with us the amazing results of a very successful TeenPact year. For more information on the TeenPact Program go to www.teenpact.com.

Wednesday’s event was video taped by Western Sky Media and will soon be up on our website.